Failed To Abandon the Villain

“He became emperor at a very young age and treated us from another country with great formality. I and Lagris regarded him as friends.”

That seemed to be the problem. Because she treated him as a close friend.

A man like the emperor wanted someone who could stand on equal footing with him. In particular, the emperor was a man who hid his greed and was consistent in his pretense from an early age. He smiled falsely to gain people’s favor and whispered false in people’s ears. Those who knew his true face were afraid of him, while those who only saw him in his false form were busy flattering him. In the midst of all this, she and Lagris had stepped into his realm.

Valletta raised an eyebrow at the situation, which she could somehow imagine.

“I don’t want that boy Milord to turn out to be like Cainus.”

“Probably.”

In fact, he was going to become emperor eventually. Of course, it was unknown what would happen if he continued to fall further and further to the bottom.

“And if you don’t mind….. Please let me know if you hear anything more about Lagris.”

“I will. Thank you for letting me know about the formation. And by any chance, you’re not planning to run away, are you?”

“…….”

Elise just laughed at Valletta’s words . The sadness and desperation in her eyes as she silently laughed made Valletta give up on speaking any further. If Elise doesn’t want to leave, there’s no way to help her.

‘……why do I want to help in the first place?’

Sometimes you just can’t pretend not to know, even though you know that it’s often easier to pretend not to know.

Valletta wrinkled her brow and shook her head.

“It’s not safe for me to stay here for too long, so I’ll go. And one more thing. I didn’t see the light when you wrote the formation earlier.”

“Hmm, they don’t tell you that these days, do they? Ancient alchemy doesn’t shine.”

“……really?”

Valletta’s eyes widened as she asked back. Elise, seeing the rare shards of emotion on her expressionless face, laughed and nodded.

‘If those kids had grown up, they would have been this big.’

Elise didn’t ask how old Valletta was, but they must have been around the same age.

She didn’t know when the last time she had talked this much. The muscles in her face and her mouth were already sore, but Elise ignored it and opened her mouth again.

“You do know that alchemy is basically a combination of magic and alchemy, right?”

“Yes, I know.”

“And the newer alchemy is probably easier than the ancient one, right?”

Elise’s words made sense to Valletta, who nodded her head.

The person in front of her (Valletta )must have been trapped here for a long time, yet she (Elise) could remember many things. The story must be that she was that smart and didn’t get desperate. How amazing that she (Elise) could endure such a place without going crazy.

“Yes, I heard that it was simplified to prevent the magic circle from taking too long to draw.”

“Yes, I suppose it was for the sake of convenience. But that’s not the case with the original. That’s why when you draw an alchemy formation, if you write the alchemy formula in the old, ancient language, it won’t glow.”

Valletta nodded. Surely this was information that she wouldn’t understand even if she read the book day and night. It was something she had never understood before, even though she had read quite a few books.

“But many of the ancient alchemical formulas were taboo, and some of them were dangerous, the kind that involved human sacrifice. There must be a good reason why they are banned.”

Valletta nodded.

“So remember that it’s your job to choose and use them well.”

Elise smiled. Valletta nodded silently and bowed. She wouldn’t be able to come again for a while to avoid arousing suspicion, but the next time she came she wanted to bring the information Elise wanted.

‘Although that would be the last time.’

Elise waved her hand lightly as she watched Valletta bow. Valletta walked down the long corridor again and came out . With Nerade and Jin’s help, she returned to the room safely and exhaled slowly.

“What do you mean?”

Valletta asked Nerade, interrupting Jin’s words. The mermaid the size of the palm of Valletta’s hand nodded slowly as she swam slowly, using the open air as her ocean. Then she sat down in front of Valletta, her hands cupping her chin.

Jin, who took the shape of a bird, answered as it flapped its wings spontaneously.

Valletta bit her lips. Elise was a pretty cheerful person, but she wondered what Elise would think if she heard news of death soon after they met.

‘It seems like every time I meet people, everyone dies.’

This was why Valletta was afraid to approach people. To call their names, to promise them the next time. And if she visited them, if no one was there….

“…..like that.”

Valletta let out a low sigh. If she had known this was going to happen, she should have examined Elise’s wound properly. But, there was no way to put back something she had lost a long time ago…….

The alchemist’s potion was highly effective, but it only worked if it was used before the wound had healed. For example, if someone’s arm got cut off and used a top-grade potion on the spot, the arm would grow back, but if the part had already healed, there was no way to get it back.

“You can go now. Thank you for helping me.”

Valletta nodded. She sat down at her desk and slowly opened the first page of the book Gillian had given her.

* * *

The book contained some amazing things. There were various links about alchemy and human experimentation, and the book even recorded in detail the stories and experiments of human’s connections using the elements necessary for human beings. There were bizarre experiments, including cutting a human’s body parts and attached it to a wound that wasn’t healed or it was already healed.

If this wasn’t an introduction to creating a chimera, what was it? In the end, however, it seemed that even the author, Bertas, was still unable to make it work.

Valletta, who had concentrated on reading the book until the morning came, finally raised her hand and rubbed her face. The impact hit her hard on the head. All of the techniques were written in ancient languages, and many of the stories were unbelievable. However, with a little application of this, it would not be difficult to make a clay doll.

If she could put a soul into the clay and move it, then moving a corpse didn’t seem too complicated. However, it required a human soul to do so. That meant that she would have to use two alchemy.

Once the alchemy to kill a person on the alchemy circle and once the alchemy to trap the soul in a specific object…. And then once the kind of alchemy that breaks the trapped soul and shares it with a few people.

…… But there would have to be a price for that. What did they give as a price? What price did they pay to rip out a single soul and put it in a dozen people?

“Surely this deserves to be classified as a forbidden book.”

Her index finger tapped lightly on the leather cover. If this content were to be circulated freely around the world, it would be a serious matter. It seemed that she knew what Gillian or the being that created Lesir had seen. Of course, they must have read this book and applied it.

‘I suppose I can use it too.’

Knowing this, it would be possible to reverse the raging Lesir back to corpses. Then again…… The same goes for Lost*.

(*as the reader said last time, I’ll use ‘Lost’, instead of ‘Roast’ for the disease)

‘Let’s think about it.’

When Lost occurred, the light did not stream out of a large or small magic circle. Because then some people would have noticed. In other words, the fact that it didn’t glow means that whatever was used to cause Lost to develop was ancient.

‘Ancient, ancient, ancient.’

Valletta muttered irritably. What the hell is ancient related to? But the ancient stuff was certainly powerful and dangerous, and relatively safe from exposure because it was not known.

Knock. Knock.

Valletta raised her head at the sound of the knock. When she turned her head, it was already as bright as midday outside.

“Is it already this late?”

Even though she stayed up all night, she didn’t even look tired.

* * *